Black Deuces – Poker Blog

… I usually do well, especially in tournaments. I made over 600$ in less then 3 weeks, in less then 15 tourneys. Running pretty good and the competition is quite soft, just look at the following hand.

They just can’t throw away a hand, it’s beautiful!

After a little time out from playing online poker, I really felt like playing a 90 man SNG at Full Tilt Poker last night. And guess what? I won the damn thing.

Although struggeling with a short-stack for most of the tournament I managed to make it to the final table. But at that final-table I doubled up twice fairly quickly, and with only 5 players remaining I knocked out 2 of them at once with pocket kings, giving me 60% of all the chips in play. I even got heads up with a 8 to 1 chip advantage, so the match was quickly over.

(Too bad hand history was disabled, otherwise I could have shown you some of the key hands.)

It feels good to finally book a win again!

Thanks to Pokerstars beautiful Steps SNG’s I managed to turn 7.50$ into a 215$ tournament ticket. So, I’ll be playing the Sunday Million tomorrow (for the first time!). Fingers crossed.

Off to bed now, but let me first share with you this sick hand that occured in Step #3 and which played a crucial part in me making the final 2.

To quote Bob Dylan: “I can’t help it if I’m lucky.”

Btw, if you have no idea what the Pokerstars’ Steps are, check out this link.

Update: Didn’t manage to cash and was out in two hours. No bad beats or anything, just regular variance (and, I have to admit, some bad plays from my part.) Better luck next time!

I didn’t manage to cash in the first event of the MiniFTOPS yesterday. This was basically due to a rather sick hand that came up around an hour and a half into the tournament:

Table Information

Seat 1:	Player 1	($6,180)	Dealer
Seat 2:	Player 2	($7,880)	Small Blind
Seat 3:	Hero	($7,100)	Big Blind
Seat 4:	Player 4	($5,975)
Seat 5:	Player 5	($5,530)
Seat 6:	Player 6	($2,080)

Dealt to Hero

Preflop (Pot:240)

RAISE

Player 4

$480

FOLD

Player 5

FOLD

Player 6

FOLD

Player 1

FOLD

Player 2

RAISE

Hero

$1,680

CALL

Player 4

$1,200

Flop (Pot: $3,600)

RAISE

Player 4

$2,560

RAISE

Player 6

$4,295

ALL-IN

Player 4

$1,735

Turn (Pot: $12,190)

River (Pot: $12,190)

ShowDown:

SHOWS   Hero

SHOWS   Player 4

Player 4

win the pot: $12,190

The next hand I got JJ in the small blind and moved all-in, only to be called by the same player, which was holding AK this time. An A hit the flop and over was my MiniFTOPS #1.

It’s debatable whether or not I could have gotten away from those 33′s after the flop, but I think the way it played out, it was just one of those hands that played itself. Better luck next time.

BTW: Bob Safai is my hero.

I’m really excited about the new tournament series Full Tilt Poker is introducing. The MiniFTOPS is starting today with event #1, a super-stack 6handed tournament hosted by Erick Lindgren. Although I stated a few days ago that I would drastically cut back on my time playing  online, I do plan to play some of these low-buyin-but-huge-reward-tournaments.

So, time to recap some basic strategies. Like the advantages of establishing a tight table image, so I don’t get tempted into playing far too many hands (like I usually do).

Hope to see you at the final table tonight!